


Attention Seeking

by Jemisard



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 01:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19122265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jemisard/pseuds/Jemisard
Summary: Klaus is bored and always needs attention. Ben would like to take a break from Klaus' neediness and read. (Warning: Discussion of Klaus' sex life.)





	Attention Seeking

"Hey, if we were like,  _ homo sensorium _ , you'd know every time I was having sex..."

 

Ben looked up from his book to give his brother a disbelieving look. "Klaus, I've been haunting you for thirteen years, I already know every time you're having sex, because it's frequently inflicted on me whether I want to know or not."

 

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but- oh, man, were you there that time, in that bar-"

 

"Focus, Klaus. Not on whatever sordid sexual escapade you were going to tell me about."

 

"Right, but if we were like, Sensates, you'd not just know but you'd be able to  _ feel _ what I felt and it would be like, you were getting laid and we could get you laid!" Klaus slapped his hands onto the bed. "We should do that!"

 

"You're not  _ homo sensorium _ , Klaus."

 

"But I am  _ homosexual _ , it's almost the same... Okay, no, I'm not, I'm like, pansexual, I think, yeah." Klaus nodded.

 

Ben shook his head and turned his focus back to his book. Klaus was really just being fidgety and restless and wanting to aggravate someone.

 

"Beeeeen. Stop ignoring me." Klaus rolled off the bed, landing on his front and then doing a worm impression over to Ben's feet and dropping his chin onto the toe of his sneaker. "I'm bored."

 

"I noticed. Read something. Watch tv. There's a lot of things you can do."

 

"I want your attention." Klaus started trying to undo Ben's sneaker with his teeth.

 

"... really? Really?!" Ben tried to move his foot away, but risked kicking Klaus' face to do it and he refused to do that. "Klaus, off."

 

Klaus' teeth had the double knot undone and he grabbed a trailing end to pull the entire thing undone. He spat it to the side and looked up through his lashes, digging his chin into Ben's toes. "Off?"

 

"Get off."

 

"Well, I suppose it would pass the time." Klaus rolled over–keeping his head pillowed on Ben's foot–and started undoing his belt.

 

"Klaus, no! Oh my God, why are you like this?! Why are you like this?" Ben finally put down his book to try and grab Klaus' arms, resorting to asking the Horrors to grab him when Klaus kept trying to wriggle out of the way.

 

"Oh yeah, manhandle me, Benny baby," Klaus crooned as tentacles grabbed his wrists, forcing them to where Ben could grab them.

 

"Klaus, please." Ben leaned to look down on his brother's impish face. "You have my attention, okay? The book is down. You've got me."

 

They were words that made Klaus look inordinately pleased with himself, wriggling on his back on the ground and the tentacles withdrew again, slipping back into the other place they came from.

 

"Now what?" He wasn't really expecting much in the way of a sensible answer, so Klaus trying to push himself up to sitting without Ben letting go of him wasn't that surprising.

 

"Don't know. Let go, I want to get up on the couch."

 

Ben sighed and let go; Klaus clambered up and flopped with his head in Ben's lap, trying to roll over to push his face into his stomach.

 

"No."

 

"Spoilsport. They like me." He rolled the other way, cheek resting on Ben's thigh and hand coming to rest on his knee.

 

They did. It was disturbing for Ben, but ever since his death, their vaguely curious indifference to Klaus had intensified to something more like genuine and open curiosity and alien interest.

 

They interacted with Klaus' powers in ways he was scared to explore, but was silently grateful for the fact that this new connection had given him the ability to pull himself back into reality most of the time.

 

Klaus' bony finger poked his knee. "Beeeeen."

 

"What?" He rested his hand on Klaus' head, fingers gently combing tangles from his curls.

 

Klaus murmured something like 'Nothing' and wriggled in, content enough now he was the sole focus of Ben's attention.

 

"If I keep petting you, will you let me read?"

 

Unhappy noise. That was no.

 

"What if I read out loud?" He had done that sometimes when they were younger and meant to be in bed asleep. After Sir stopped recording them at night, and Klaus barely slept for nightmares and flashbacks and Ben barely slept for panic, Ben would come into Klaus' room and they'd sit side by side on the bed, the curtains open to let in enough light to read by and Ben would whisper words until they both relaxed enough to at least pretend to sleep. Mom would wake them up in time to get up and for Ben to go back to his own room before Pogo did morning rounds.

 

"Maybe. What are you reading?"

 

" _ One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich _ , by Aleksandr Solz-"

 

"BARP. No. Hard pass. Sounds depressing, it's Russian, it is depressing."

 

"It's not," he protested, but Klaus had clearly decided. "Fine, what do you want me to read?"

 

What Klaus chose would tell Ben a lot. He was half expecting Klaus to demand some terrible bodice ripper just so he could try and niggle Ben into reading him purple prose porn. He might try and convince Ben that he had to be read the Clifford books, or some equally uneducational, young child series that they wouldn't own anyway.

 

Instead, Klaus groped under the cushion he was lying on and pulled out and old, hardcover book and shoved it at Ben.

 

"Oh." He glanced at Klaus' face. "Okay. If you want. I need both hands for it."

 

"Okay."

 

It wasn't like he wouldn't have Ben's full attention anyway.

 

So Ben opened up the book, the pages stained on the edges from years of handling and reading in bed at night. "Chapter one, the river bank. The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home..."

  
  



End file.
